Chatroom doesn't live up to the gossip

Thursday 23 December 2010 16:01 BST

Aaron Johnson swaggers around this doomy internet drama like he’s trying out for a part in Ken Russell’s Gothic. All narrowed eyes and leering lips, he telegraphs the fact that middle-class teen William (who invites four fragile youngsters to share their hopes and dreams in his chatroom) may not be the perfect stranger.

Director Hideo "The Ring" Nakata never connects with the script (by Enda Walsh, adapting from his own play). The end result feels like a fancy health warning. As in: Why Don’t You Just Switch Off Your Computer And Go Do Something Less Dangerous Instead? But the swoony psych folk/dance soundtrack is great. The film’s most ambiguous scene plays over Tiffany Page’s Better Late Than Never and hints at what might have been. Out now